On September 15th the virtual IPEMA conference on practical solutions to the issue of piglet castration took place. Around 300 people from 30 countries attended this webinar.
The take home message from the IPEMA webinar was that the process of moving towards alternatives of surgical castration is irreversible, even if the solutions applied within Europe differ.
Given the increasing public attention to animal welfare, the sector is faced with the challenge of ending surgical castration. Surgical castration with pain relief is still necessary for products that demand pigs of higher age and weight at slaughter. But for most products, there are other alternatives. During the webinar the pan-European network IPEMA (Innovative approaches for pork production with entire males) focused on two remaining alternatives: production of entire male pigs and immunocastration.
Fact-based solutions to issues raised by entire male pig production and immunocastration were shared by scientists from all over Europe. Click here to watch the presentations given during the conference, including questions and answers and the panel discussion.
Read more about alternatives to surgical castration.